HARPURSVILLE – Like a doting grandmother, Carol Pease saves mementos that remind her of her grandchildren.

The 76-year-old Harpursville resident perches cards sent by some of her grandkids on a wood-burning stove in the corner of her house. In a red folder tucked into her bookshelf is a stapled booklet of funny things her grandchildren have said over the years.

The names of the children in her booklet, the ones who sent her "Happy retirement!" cards, are not actually related to Pease. They're the kindergarteners and first-graders, past and present, whom she's watched over as a foster grandparent for the Harpursville Central School District during the past 16 years. She retired at the end of June.

"I won't feel it until September, but I'm sure it will be different," she said.

Pease became involved in the Broome County Foster Grandparent program in 1998. She said she wanted to "get out and socialize" after spending much of her life as a stay-at-home wife and mother.

Through this county offshoot of a federal program, income-eligible volunteering seniors ages 55 or older are placed in different programs focused on children. Some of Pease's peers work with infants, while others spend time at summer programs with older children. The seniors earn an hourly stipend, reimbursement and paid time off.

As a foster grandparent, Pease usually worked one-on-one with three or four children, sometimes special-needs students. She helped with their classwork, to pronounce words or solve math equations as needed.

That doesn't mean that she only cared about those few children. Most of her 300-plus students over the years called her "Gramma Pease," as did some of the teachers, she said. For several years, Pease said, she hand-knit mittens for all the children in the class.

"They were all mine, they were all my grandchildren," she said.

Pease indulged the students, but within reason. If a student misbehaved, she said, she made sure a teacher or administrator knew about it.

She and her husband Ken, 79, are no strangers to offspring of their own. In addition to their two sons and two daughters, they have 12 grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren.

Now that she's retired, she's ready to relax. She and Ken often go camping or fishing together during the weekends.

These days, Pease said it's hard to go anywhere — the grocery, the hardware store, Walmart — without running into one of her former students, some of whom still know her as "Gramma." Ken Pease said he's gotten used to it.

"I'll just sit in the car while she catches up," he said with a laugh.

CAROL PEASE

Age: 76

Home: Harpursville

Hometown: Binghamton

Work: Foster grandparent for the Harpursville Central School District, retired in June after 16 years